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Mexico’s recent election violence can’t be blamed on organized crime gangs alone
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Date: None

On Sunday 6 June, Mexicans took to the polls in what was the country’s largest-ever election – and one of its most violent, with candidates, local officials, journalists and human rights activists targeted.

There were reports of up to 150 killings during the campaign, which was marked by political polarization heightened by the president’s attacks on the country’s electoral authority, as well as on his various detractors, journalists and civil society groups.

The people voted for 15 state governors, 30 state legislators, 1,900 mayors and the lower house of the national legislature. Though Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was not on the ballot – he is halfway through his six-year term – the election was largely seen as a referendum on his presidency and likely either to boost MORENA, his party, or clip its wings.

National and international coverage of the election violence focused on the involvement of drug cartels or organised criminal groups. The government, as well as President López Obrador, repeatedly referred to “organized crime” as the reason for “the scourge of violence every day”.

Indeed, recent studies have shown that organised crime groups have incentives to perpetrate violence during an election, especially at the municipal level. Moreover, as analysts have pointed out, these organizations’ “incentives to kill” include the fact that they get away with it – more than 90% of murders go unpunished in Mexico.

Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to focus on only organised crime. There is not much empirical evidence for criminal organization’s direct involvement in election violence, though admittedly such incidents often go unreported or investigations remain unsolved. Accordingly, the culpability of organised crime groups rests on speculation, rumour or the ‘evidence’ that is allegedly left behind at the crime scene by the perpetrators, such as notes left on the victim’s body. Sometimes, the manner of the killing – multiple shots to the head, for example – is considered to be proof that organised crime was involved.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/mexico-recent-election-violence-cant-be-blamed-on-organized-crime-gangs-alone/